Description:
Framed black and white print depicting a full-length, seated man facing left, wearing a uniform, and holding gloves, and an elaborate background including nautical emblems, which is titled "Captain Thos Coram" and signed "W. Hogarth Pinx. London Published Dec. 1 1796 by R. Cribb no 288 Holburn W. Nutter, sculpt." Thomas Coram (1668-1751) moved to Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1694 and donated 59 acres in Taunton for the schoolhouse. He returned to England in 1719, where he became involved in public affairs. Appalled at the condition of unwanted children, he devoted 17 yrs. to the founding of the Foundling Hospital, which opened in 1741. While in England, Elisha Williams (1694-1755) asked Coram for funds to support his proposed school - now Williams College. William Hogarth (1697-1764), impressed with Coram's accomplishments, painted this portrait in 1740 to showcase Hogarth’s commitment to the ideals of Coram’s Hospital for Foundling Children, of which the artist was a highly active governor. Hogarth gave a portrait of Coram to the hospital in 1740, which was engraved by William Nutter (1754-1802) and published as this print in 1796.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+78.103 |
